Counterpoise for stove doors



Jan. 5,1926. I 1,568,357

A. -w. WALKER COUNTERPOISE FOR STOVE DOORS Filed April 23, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ,[71 06775271 drfihwr Z1). Ida; U161 Patented Jan. 5, 1926.

UNITED STATES ARTHUR W. WALKER, MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

COUNTEBPOISE FOB STOVE DOORS.

application fled April 23, 1925. Serial No. 25,316.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that" I, ARTHUR W. WALKER,

. a citizen of the United States, residing at Malden, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Counterpoise for Stove Doors, of which the following is a specification. This invention relates to an. improved connterpoise for stove doors. More particularly it relates to an improved means for balancing the opened doors of ovens, broilers and the like, in gas and electric ranges for domesticuse. Doors which open about a hinge at a horizontal edge of the door tend to slam themselves open or shut as the center of gravity swings outward. To prevent this counterpoise springs are used, and it is an object of the present invention to provide improvement in such. s

The recent trend of design has been to conceal the door springs within the frame of the stove, and in such construction the springs,

have usually been arranged vertically, in position to resist direct action of an arm which swings with the door, and this has involved the placing of the spring in a location where it is both subject to high heat and is annoyingly inaccessible for removal and replacement. Among the advantages of the invention are that it provides a location and arrangement of spring where there is easy facility for the insertion, removal or adjustment of the spring; and that this is in a region not affected by proximity to the source of heat, only parts such as wire links or rods being subject to the heat of that region.

The invention is illustrated as it may be applied to a stove or range having two heat 0 ambers for cooking one above the other,

-with the gas flame or other source of heat,

such as electric units, arranged between them, so that the upper chamber may constitute an oven while the lower chamber may constitute a broiler. In such arrangement already known any armmovin with the door swings in a vertical plane, an it has been proposed to balance the doors, which are.

hinged at the bottom by providing a vertical spring within the adjacent space that is closed by the door. As contrasted with this, the present invention provides a link or rod extending. from the said arm on the journal of the door to some cool and easily accessible place, as for example under the bottom of the stove, which stands on legs,

and there having connection with a 'bell crank which transmutesits action into horizontal direction and permits attachment to a spiral spring arranged foractionhorizontally in this cool part of the stove. There is the further feature of this construction that it permits of all of the springs for the doors, two in the instance illustrated, being arranged at the same point of anchorage and being operatedby simple wire links each gunning the necessary distance to its proper oor.

In the accompanying drawings, one embodiment of the invention is illustrated; and it is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claim, whatever features of patentable novelty exist in the invention disclosed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevation, in section on line 11 of Figure 2, as it would appear looking outward toward the doors;

Figure 2 is a side elevation on line 22 of Figure 1 with both doors closed;

Fi ure 3 is a portion of a side elevation like Figure 2 showing the lower door open;

Figure 4-is a plan in section on line 44 of Figure 1; and

Figure 5 is-a portion of an elevation like Figure 1 showing a modification of the The oven I the door, project inward and downward about the journals. A spur 20 on the peripheral edge of each arm engages a suitable stop 22 on the door frame when the door has been swung to a horizontal position, and thusflimits the opening swing. The lower compartment has a removable bottom 15 level with the bottom of the lower door.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated one,arm 18 of the upper door 10 is connected by a link 24, which in this instance is a simple wire with hooked ends, to a bell crank 26 mounted upon a bracket journal28 attached to the frame 14 under the said broiler bottom 15. A similar but shorter Wire line K connects a link arm 18 of the lower door to a second bell crank 32 mounted beside the first on the bracket journal 28. The bell cranks are severally connected to spiral springs 34, 36, which extend horizontally under the bottom, being anchored to bolts 38,

40, adjustably mounted on a second bracket 42 attached to the oven frame. This second bracket 42 has an angle plate with one web 42 parallel to the spiral springs and pro vided with slots 44 through which extend the bolts 38 and 40 to which the springs are attached. The head of each bolt engages under the web, and its shank after rising through the slot is bent at right angles and so that the end of the bolt projects horizontally through an opening in the vertical web 4.2" on the angle plate. Thumb nuts 46 threaded on theseprojectim ends of the bolts enable the bolts to be adjusted along the slots thereby altering the spring tension.

In operation the swing of a door causes its segmental arm 18 to turn about journal 16 and to pull upward on the wire link 24, thereby efi'ectin a partial rotation of its bell crank 26, a out its bracket journal 28. The pull of the link is transmitted by the bell crank 26 to apply tensionto its spring, which in the present case is a horizontal elongation. This places restraint on the doors movement, to prevent it slamming open by its own weight. By suitable selection of the spring and adjustment of the anchor bolt 38 a spring tension may be predetermined so that the restraint of the door arm approximately (munterbalances the tendency to swing causedby the weight of the door and the increasing moment of its center of gravity about its axis. By providing a slight tension on the spring when eam the door is closed the door can be kept tightly closed against its frame.

In the modification illustrated in Figure 5 the links 24 and from the door arms are hooked directly through the ends o'flong bar springs 48 attached rigidly at their other ends to an angle bracket 50 mounted on the oven casing. These bar springs, like the spiral springs of the preceding figures, are arranged in a space or region of the stove which is under the removable bottom of the lower compartment, and so remote from the oven or broiler heat. This prevents any deterioration of the spring due to excessive heat, and also makes the springs very easily visible and capable of manipulation for insertion, replacement or adjustment. The part of the mechanism which is in the less accessible and hotter regions is a simple wire hook. Y

I claim:

Ina cooking range having a plurality of doors, one below the other, each on a horizontal hinge, the combination, with said doors, of an arm on each door swinging with the door; a stud on a stationary part of the range, below the lower door forming a journal; a plurality of bell cranks mounted on said. stud, one (for each said arm; linkage connecting each bell crank with its arm'; a bracket stat-ionarily mounted at a distance from the bell crank, below the lower door; and a plurality of spiral springs, all anchored to said bracket and each connected to one of said bell cranks and adapted to counterpoise one of the doors.

Signed at Boston, Massachusetts, this twenty-second day of April, 1925.

. ARTHUR W. WALKER. 

